The introduction of the entry-level driver training rule is a boon for truck safety and could help reduce the industry’s driver shortage and retention concerns.

For years, the industry has asked for the ability to expand its driver workforce. FMCSA’s apprenticeship program is that opportunity, and now is time to jump on this opportunity.

Carriers need to ramp up education efforts on Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse testing to help drivers understand the zero-tolerance approach to safety-conscious driving positions.

Efforts to codify regulatory flexibility should be applauded, and the FREIGHT Act is no different.

While times of uncertainty like these can be troubling, what goes up must come down – or at least level off. The price of diesel fuel is projected to lower to a national average of $3.09 in middle and latter parts of the coming year, offering a sigh of relief for trucking.

Passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act means the industry has a path forward on infrastructure investment, and several additional provisions will benefit trucking in the future.

An Inspector General audit has found that data, including fleet records, within FMCSA may not be safe from hackers.

The nation’s safest fleet represent the best the industry has to offer. Applications are now being accepted for TCA’s 2022 Fleet Safety Awards. Deadline is Nov. 1.

FMCSA Deputy Administrator Meera Joshi indicated her strong support for safety technologies during her nomination hearing to take over agency, noting that safety is the common goal of both the industry and the agency.

As Congress works to pass two separate funding bills while dealing with the fallout of Afghanistan and severe weather across the country, the trucking industry sits and waits.

The FMCSA continues to prioritize COVID relief, extending hours-of-service Emergency Declarations once again.

As wireless providers switch off 3G networks in favor of 5G, some ELDs may no longer work.

TCA firmly believes the trend of California-specific legislation becoming the national standard must end.

As employees return to the office, scammers are upping their efforts to scam companies and hack systems.

Speeding remains a critical safety issue for trucking, and a new bill introduced in the U.S. House would seek to limit the speeds commercial trucks could travel at on the nation’s roadways.

Congress is currently in the midst of the highway reauthorization process to enable the Department of Transportation to continue implementing programs that will ensure the safety of the nation’s highway […]

While Texans are accustomed to living life free of excessive state-level taxes, they were in for a shock when their own U.S. Senator, Republican John Cornyn, used his national platform to advocate for the establishment of a truck-only vehicle miles traveled tax.

The word “safety” is everywhere in the trucking industry. It is talked about nearly every day in the press, Congress has zeroed in on it, and most carriers will say that it is their top priority. With all this attention, it’s easy to believe that safety has become cliché. But it’s not.

TCA has joined with many other stakeholders to support the DRIVE-Safe Act, which would allow 18-20-year-olds who hold a valid commercial driver’s license (CDL) to cross state lines in interstate commerce.

At a recent hearing, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee heard loud and clear that the trucking industry should not serve as the guinea pig for any seismic change in how the United States funds infrastructure, including a vehicle miles traveled tax.

It should come as no surprise to anyone in the trucking industry that the lack of adequate truck parking has reached crisis levels. That is finally getting recognized in Washington.

During the period of transition between any two presidential administrations of differing parties, there is often a flurry of regulatory activity. This one was no different.

The country is rejoicing at the recent news that the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine has been approved. Yet, concern remains over that how and when will the mobile workforce of American professional truck drivers receive the vaccine?

TCA advocates for an increase to the federal fuel tax to make up for funding shortfalls, but also recognizes that a vehicle miles tax is inevitable. The question is how do we get there?

As the Biden Administration and the Democrat-controlled 117th Congress lay out their progressive policy objectives, labor policy remains the big issue for the trucking industry.

FMCSA recently announced its intent to establish a pilot program to study the implications of adding 6/4 and 5/5 sleeper berth splits into the hours-of-service regulations.

Congress has repeatedly been criticized for taking too many vacations and leaving work unfinished, with the American public often left wondering what their elected officials are actually paid to do. However, that criticism does not hold true for the last month of 2020.

As vaccine distribution becomes more widespread and the country reaches herd immunity to the virus, TCA looks forward to seeing the lasting essentiality of trucking make its mark in the minds of the American people.

TCA and our truckload carrier members remain committed to hair testing as a viable method for determining long-term drug use by individuals in safety-sensitive functions. Recently, though, the Department of Health and Human Services threw the industry a curveball regarding these efforts.

TCA is hosting its 4th Annual Bridging Border Barriers, which is an informative half day session for trucking executives focused on key issues and topics affecting the trucking industry on both sides of the U.S./Canada border.

TCA recently filed comments in support of a proposed pilot program from FMCSA to study adding a 3-hour pause to the hours-of-service (HOS) regulations. TCA is hopeful that this is a positive sign for the revival of the sleeper berth pilot.

Detention time has been a perennial thorn in the side of the truckload industry. Now, with capacity as tight as it is, shippers will feel the pinch if they make drivers wait unnecessarily for their appointments. But will a new FMCSA pilot program accurately determine the impact of the problem?

The Department of Labor’s attempt to clarify and save the independent contractor model should be applauded.

The country is slowly emerging from its summer vacation, and this is particularly true for lawmakers and policymakers in Washington, DC. While COVID-19 remains front and center, there is still much work to be done before the November elections.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a seemingly endless supply of bad news, there may be one unexpected silver lining.

California’s AB5 has the potential to harm trucking companies of all sizes and TCA, OOIDA and others continue to push back ahead of a key court hearing.

Truck drivers work around-the-clock to deliver essential medical supplies and food as coronavirus cases rose around the country, and it’s time to codify into law their essential status.

As the summer months march on, the importance of passing appropriation bills grows before election season distracts legislators.

A loophole in the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse could allow drivers that fail to test to continue operating a motor vehicle.

Transportation workers need access to PPE to remain safe, and ensuring they can acquire the protections should be a priority in any future stimulus bills.

While the COVID-19 crisis has affected the country in deeply profound ways, it has also highlight deficiencies in the current regulatory framework for freight movement.

TCA and the larger trucking industry have been anxiously waiting to see what the final hours-of-service rule would include, and the initial reaction to it is positive.

As the government pumps more money into the economy, many are questioning where the money is coming from? It’s coming from America’s “Magic Money” tree.

Do you know someone who is going above and beyond to advance safety in the trucking community? If so, now is the time to nominate them for the 2020 TCA Safety Professional of the Year – Clare C. Casey Award.

TCA has seen our positive experiences with the federal government grow exponentially in the last few weeks. In the days that have followed the emergency declaration in response to the coronavirus outbreak, our partners in the federal government have leaped into action

The Truckload Carriers Association continues to push for a broad-based infrastructure funding mechanism rather than a truck-only scheme that would increase taxes on the industry.

TCA supports this legislation as it complements the work already being done from within the trucking community to promote our well-paying jobs to quality candidates.

The bill would reinforce in federal law the “ABC test” to determine whether an individual is an employee rather than an independent contractor, similar to California’s AB5 law that is currently being challenged in the courts.

Washington is abuzz over a renewed push on both sides of the political aisle to advance large-scale infrastructure legislation. Both House Republicans and Democrats have released infrastructure plans to correspond with the renewal of the FAST Act in 2020. 

As a part of the Transportation Research Board’s multi-day Annual Meeting, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) spent a morning session outlining its priorities for 2020.

As 2019 comes to a close and 2020 kicks into gear, now is a good time to prepare for the potential regulatory and legislative action that the trucking industry will see in the new year.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse goes live on January 6, providing an online database that will shed light on prospective drivers’ drug and alcohol program violations. 

TCA will continue to fight against exemptions to the ELD mandate.

For years, truckload carriers have voiced the need for a centralized repository for the drug testing history of prospective drivers. Without this information, hiring managers have been unable to determine whether the driver failed a drug test just the day before at the neighboring carrier down the street, only to try again at their facility the next day.

While TCA wholeheartedly agrees that more flexibility should be added to the regulations, we do not believe the addition of a 7/3 split goes far enough to address critical issues being faced by our professional truck drivers every day. 

In our ongoing efforts to educate our members on legislative and regulatory efforts in both Canada and the U.S., TCA will once again be presenting the Bridging Border Barriers (BBB) event to facilitate discussion and learning.

For the past several years, the crash statistics for large trucks and buses have been getting worse. While this could be driven by many different factors, from the prevalence of cell phone use and distracted driving to the deteriorating nature of U.S. infrastructure, the trends simply cannot be ignored by the trucking industry.

The federal fuel tax has not been increased since 1993 and has not kept pace with inflation, with rates set at 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel fuel.

One of the most important issues will be the reauthorization of the federal highway bill, also known as the FAST Act. 

For crashes that occurred after August 1, 2019, carriers will have to wait until the rulemaking process to make this program permanent concludes in order to submit those RDRs to FMCSA.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has been in high gear in recent weeks. The Agency has several pending regulations which are currently open for public comment and which could dramatically impact the truckload segment of the trucking industry.

ELD manufacturers are currently working to develop a software that allows the device to automatically switch its settings to be compliant with both the U.S. and Canadian HOS rules. 

Even though no one has officially designated June as “Detention Time Awareness Month,” the issue has received plenty of publicity in recent weeks.

News recently broke that General Motors (GM) and Bechtel, the largest construction company in the U.S., will partner to create a new company dedicated to building a network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations across the country.

As we inch closer to the full compliance deadline for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) electronic logging device (ELD) mandate, the need to transition to these devices is becoming more urgent.

While all of the hoopla over the April 30th meeting is certainly good news, we are nowhere closer to an agreement on how to pay for the $2 trillion spending package.

It is not every day that you have the opportunity to do something truly great for others – something that is life-changing or even life-saving. These chances only present themselves a few times in a person’s life, and often, we look back at the missed opportunities with regret.